Scullen girls win AA championship tourney
There Becky Williford stood, covered in orange and white cupcake frosting in between a big smile.
Yeah, winning is pretty sweet.
Williford scored 15 points, leading the Scullen eighth-grade girls basketball team to a 38-30 win over Crone in the Naperville Junior High School tournament's "AA" championship game Wednesday at Crone Middle School.
"It feels good, this being the last game of the season," Williford said. "I was expecting this to be a tough game, and it was."
Scullen had advanced to the championship with a win over Granger in overtime in the semifinals. Granger beat the same Scullen girls for the seventh-grade championship a week before.
"To beat Granger and then to be able to come through tonight with the win was great for the girls," Scullen coach Bryan Mendel said. "They've worked so hard all year. They deserve it."
Crone led 12-6 after a quarter, with Haley Adams scoring 8 of her 13 points for the hosts in the quarter.
But Scullen scored the first 8 points of the second quarter, with Williford running in a lay up off a Crone turnover to give Scullen a 14-12 lead with 4:38 left in the half.
"We score 8 to 10 points every game just on fast breaks," Mendel said. "Having Becky to run that fast break definitely helps us out."
Williford's jumper with seconds left in the half gave Scullen a 20-19 lead. After Crone tied it seconds into the third quarter, Scullen ran off 8 straight points. Caitlin Blalock's jumper made it 28-20 with 3:05 left in the third. The lead never dipped below four the rest of the way.
"We switched defenses up a little bit and went with our 1-3-1 zone," Mendel said, "and tried to keep them off the boards. That was the hardest thing, keeping them off the boards."
Blalock and Allyse Johnson each scored 6 points for Scullen. Amber Smith had 7 points and Rachel Ross 6 for Crone.
Earlier in the day, Jefferson beat Madison 22-10 in the "A" championship game.
Brittany Weizeorick and Julie Schimeck scored 6 points each for Jefferson (10-3), who avenged two losses to Madison earlier in the season and a loss in the seventh-grade final last year. Jefferson, the No. 4 seed in the tournament, beat top seed Lincoln in the semifinals.
"It was nice to be able to redeem ourselves against Madison," Jefferson coach Creighton Getting said.
Madison scored the first 4 points of the game, but Jefferson came back to take an 11-4 lead after the first quarter. A jumper by Schimeck midway through the quarter gave Jefferson the lead for good.
"Once we got the big-game jitters out of the way," Getting said, "the girls settled in and really started to find their rhythm. They played with a lot of energy and a lot of focus."